Biotech
6 Early-Stage Drug Delivery Startups Developing New Ways to Deliver Medicines
DealBio tracks early-stage drug delivery startups across Europe and North America. These 6 are developing new ways to move therapeutic cargo into difficult tissues, concentrate activity at the disease site or protect healthy tissue from drug exposure.
- Drug Delivery
- Therapeutics
- Gene Therapy
- RNA Therapeutics
- Rare Disease
Drug delivery can determine whether a promising medicine reaches the cells where it needs to act. For biologics, genetic medicines and other potent therapies, the delivery system can be as important as the therapeutic payload itself.
The startups below approach that problem from different directions. Some are opening or crossing brain barriers, others are concentrating medicines in the liver or muscle, reprogramming immune cells with mRNA, or keeping treatment local to oral tissue.
For investors, the useful comparison is not simply the delivery technology. It is whether the platform solves a defined biological bottleneck, has evidence that the payload reaches the intended site, and can support a repeatable development or partnership model.
At a Glance
- Cerentry BioDenmark2026Brain shuttle for systemic therapeutics
- HarmonixFrance2024Focused-ultrasound brain delivery
- NanoZymeXSwitzerland2026Lipid nanoparticle enzyme delivery
- Heureka TherapeuticsDenmark2026Liver-targeted peptide-drug conjugates
- MucoShieldSweden2025Local oral protection before chemotherapy
- Flip TherapeuticsUnited Kingdom2024LNP-delivered mRNA for immune-cell reprogramming
Developing a brain shuttle for systemic delivery of therapeutics into the brain.
- Country
Denmark- Founded
- 2026
- Sector
- Biotech
- Funding stage
- Seed or earlier
Why Cerentry Bio stands out
Cerentry Bio is developing an alternative route for systemically dosed medicines to reach the central nervous system. The startup joined BioInnovation Institute’s Venture Lab with €500,000 in convertible funding, and co-founders Katrine Qvortrup and Mette Rosenkilde are named on a 2022 patent covering the underlying brain-delivery approach.
Mette Rosenkilde also brings repeat biotech-building experience from Antag Therapeutics, Synklino, Bainan Biotech and Inagen, while the platform was developed with University of Copenhagen and DTU support.
What Cerentry Bio is building
Cerentry Bio is building a brain shuttle that uses receptor-mediated transport at the choroid plexus, the tissue interface between blood and cerebrospinal fluid, to carry therapeutic cargo across the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier.
The approach is designed to preserve systemic dosing while expanding which biologic drug formats can access central-nervous-system targets, avoiding the need to administer the medicine directly into the brain or cerebrospinal fluid.
02
Harmonix
Using focused ultrasound and microbubbles to get gene therapies into the brain.
- Country
France- Founded
- 2024
- Sector
- Biotech
- Funding stage
- Seed or earlier
Why Harmonix stands out
Harmonix combines focused ultrasound with engineered microbubbles to address one of the central constraints in neurological drug development: getting large genetic medicines across the blood-brain barrier. Its founding research has demonstrated transient barrier opening in mouse and rat models.
The startup won the 2025 i-Lab Grand Prix du Jury for its BubbleGene programme and a Servier–BioLabs Golden Ticket. The founding team combines drug-delivery research with commercial experience in oncology and biotechnology.
What Harmonix is building
Harmonix uses focused ultrasound to activate cationic microbubbles at a selected brain region. The interaction temporarily opens the blood-brain barrier and is designed to help viral and non-viral gene and RNA therapies reach the target tissue.
The platform can carry genetic payloads including oligonucleotides, mRNA and plasmid DNA. Harmonix is developing the delivery system as a platform for central-nervous-system drug developers rather than as a single medicine.
Developing lipid nanoparticle enzyme therapies for Pompe and other rare diseases.
- Country
Switzerland- Founded
- 2026
- Sector
- Biotech
- Funding stage
- Seed or earlier
Why NanoZymeX stands out
NanoZymeX is redesigning enzyme replacement therapy around the delivery problem rather than changing the replacement enzyme itself. Its peer-reviewed work reported more than a five-fold reduction in antibody response versus free enzyme formulations.
The University of Basel spinout has secured about CHF 1.4 million in grants and institutional support and was selected for Venture Leaders Biotech 2026, giving the platform both scientific and commercialization support.
What NanoZymeX is building
NanoZymeX packages therapeutic enzymes inside proprietary lipid nanoparticles. Its lead program delivers acid alpha-glucosidase for Pompe disease, with the particles designed to improve uptake in skeletal muscle and diaphragm while protecting the enzyme from immune recognition.
The same lipid nanoparticle platform is designed to carry other replacement enzymes, creating a route to expand beyond Pompe disease into additional lysosomal storage and enzyme-deficiency disorders.
Developing targeted therapies for metabolic liver disease.
- Country
- Denmark
- Founded
- 2026
- Sector
- Biotech
- Funding stage
- Seed or earlier
Why Heureka Therapeutics stands out
Heureka Therapeutics is concentrating a potent metabolic mechanism in the liver rather than exposing the whole body. Its lead conjugate has shown early preclinical efficacy in a mouse model of metabolic liver disease, while the startup joined BioInnovation Institute’s Venture Lab with €500,000 in financing.
Christoffer Clemmensen and Jonas Odgaard Petersen previously co-founded Ousia Pharma, bringing experience in translating academic drug-delivery research from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research at the University of Copenhagen into a financed biotech venture.
What Heureka Therapeutics is building
Heureka Therapeutics is developing liver-targeted peptide-drug conjugates, medicines that chemically link a peptide carrier to a therapeutic payload, for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), a progressive fatty-liver disease with inflammation and scarring.
The carrier directs an AMPK activator into liver cells. AMPK is a cellular energy-sensing enzyme involved in fat and glucose metabolism, allowing the program to concentrate activity in the target organ while limiting exposure elsewhere.
Developing local treatments to prevent chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis.
- Country
Sweden- Founded
- 2025
- Sector
- Biotech
- Funding stage
- Seed or earlier
- Founders
- Jean Lycke
- Mats Jontell
- Olle Isaksson
- Thomas Hedner
Why MucoShield stands out
MucoShield is keeping the intervention local to the oral mucosa, where chemotherapy can cause painful inflammation and ulcers. Its founding team brings two prior biotech exits, while Mats Jontell co-authored a randomized, blinded Phase 3 oral-mucositis trial in 172 patients.
All four founders are named inventors on granted oral-mucosa patents, linking the startup’s treatment concept to prior clinical and intellectual-property work in the same tissue.
What MucoShield is building
MucoShield is developing a locally applied treatment intended for use before chemotherapy. The approach is designed to temporarily alter blood flow in the oral mucosa, reducing local exposure to cytotoxic drugs during treatment.
Gel and spray formulations are under development. By concentrating the intervention in the mouth rather than systemically, MucoShield is building a supportive-oncology delivery strategy around protecting a specific healthy tissue from drug exposure.
Developing RNA medicines to reprogram immune cells for autoimmune disease.
- Country
United Kingdom- Founded
- 2024
- Sector
- Biotech
- Funding stage
- Seed or earlier
Why Flip Therapeutics stands out
Flip Therapeutics is using delivery as part of an in vivo cell-engineering strategy rather than manufacturing modified immune cells outside the body. Medicines Discovery Catapult committed £500,000 in investment and scientific support for payload validation and nanoparticle-delivery development.
CEO David Pajerowski previously led Phase I and Phase II technical development of Moderna’s personalized cancer vaccine, while the startup emerged from a Deep Science Ventures–AbbVie initiative focused on immune reprogramming.
What Flip Therapeutics is building
Flip Therapeutics encodes proprietary immune-reprogramming payloads in mRNA and delivers them with lipid nanoparticles. The goal is to reach disease-driving T cells inside the body and shift them toward a protective, anti-inflammatory state.
The platform is initially aimed at autoimmune and inflammatory disease. Its delivery model combines an RNA payload with in vivo immune-cell reprogramming, avoiding an ex vivo cell-manufacturing step.
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Investment Perspective
Across these startups, delivery is not a packaging decision made after a medicine has been designed. It is part of the therapeutic architecture. The route into the brain, the carrier into liver or muscle, the local protection of oral tissue and the nanoparticle that reaches an immune cell all shape what the medicine can do.
That creates different investment questions for each platform. Brain-delivery startups need convincing evidence that cargo crosses the intended barrier at useful exposure. Tissue-targeted conjugates need selectivity that translates into a better therapeutic window. Nanoparticle platforms need repeatable payload compatibility and manufacturability. Local delivery approaches need a practical clinical workflow.
The strongest drug-delivery businesses can therefore create value beyond a single asset. If a delivery mechanism works across multiple payloads or partners, the platform can become an enabling layer for medicines that would otherwise be limited by where they can reach.
Methodology
DealBio selected these startups from its coverage of early-stage health and longevity startups, focusing on businesses where delivery is central to how the therapeutic is intended to work. The selection spans brain delivery, liver targeting, enzyme delivery, local tissue protection and in vivo RNA delivery to immune cells.
DealBio builds its Startup Briefs using publicly available startup materials, ecosystem sources, market references and professional profiles.